Glog (contraction of G-Blog)

(The following lecture was given January 6, 2024 in the Serra Center, Malibu, CA as part of the Media Apostles Retreat for entertainment industry leaders) Abstract Do we make meaning, or discover it? While the past 250 years of intellectual history leans toward the former, the possibility of affirming the latter gives us pause since we are also haunted by the thought of missing out on the meaning of the world. At the same time, we have no doubt that artists bring meaningful stuff into being. Understanding symbolism is central to the human intellect's discovery of meaning. We will explore how symbols are different from signs, whether they are in some way necessarily religious, and what role they play in the formation of culture. The sacramental quality of creation that is native to the Judeo-Christian worldview is a heritage that's easily lost: it takes a robust combination of honesty and virtue to behold things as windows to God, which brings us to consider if an...